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The Dark Lord Grindelwald

Hey guys, Im about to start writting a fic based around Grindelwald's year's of terror and I need a few details to be checked out for me.

Where was Grindelwald from?

Is it ever actually confirmed...

1. How many countries he managed to take?

2. If he ever managed to get into the Brittish Wizarding Community?

3. How many followers he had, and what there "terrible actions" actually were?

4. How Dumbledore managed to defeat him other than that it was in a duel, no mentions of spells, spies, battles etc?

I just want to know how much space I can work in without changing anything that is specifically said in the books.

If you can think of any other information which would be helpful for me to know, and is specifically from the books or from interviews, F.A.Q's etc which J.K has answered herself then please add it here as it would really, really help me.

Well, most of these questions we don't know the answer to. He went to Durmstrang, so obviously he's from eastern Europe somewhere, but we don't exactly know. I think his name implies he's German as well as a few other things, but don't necessarily take my word for it.

We don't know if he "took" countries quite like Hitler did, but his reign of terror was spread out all over eastern and middle Europe, to paraphrase. He never managed to "get into" Britian--the British, I think, sort of heard about what was going on in Europe and knew their Ministry was trying to figure things out and were probably frightened, but it wasn't right on their doorstep.

We really don't know much about his "terrible actions" or "twisted experiments", but they probably had something to do with Muggles. Also, he did have a very poweful wand. We know that Grindelwald and his followers--who we really know nothing about--did kill some people, like Krum's grandfather some of Krum's classmates' family members.

4. How Dumbledore managed to defeat him other than that it was in a duel, no mentions of spells, spies, battles etc?

You pretty much have free rein here; just remember it was the biggest and most amazing wizarding duel anyone can think of, usually.

So, yeah, you have free rein on a lot of things. The Lexicon is, as usual, very helpful in this subject, and if you need to discuss Grindelwald's actual character there's a thread for that in Madam Pomfrey's now.

Hey guys, Im about to start writting a fic based around Grindelwald's year's of terror and I need a few details to be checked out for me.

Where was Grindelwald from?

There are a lot of similarities between Grindelwald and Hitler. Grindelwald went to Durmstrang, but could easily have been from western Europe - he has a Germanic name, and that would further the close parallel with some aspects of Hitler's life. We know a great deal of what Voldemort got up to filtered through to the Muggle world in one way or another. The dates are just too close together for them not to be related.

In the event that Grindelwald was based on Hitler, and we consider the same international borders as were around then and the movements of Hitler, he could have had some dozen countries under his control and you've got a great deal of scope to work with. Also, "For the greater good" above his prison goes back to Jedem das Seine [To each what he deserves] (at the Buchenwald camp) and Arbeit Macht Frei [work brings freedom] (Auschwitz, Terezin, Dachau and Sachsenhausen).

The terrible actions could possibly be parallel to Aktion T4 and the Holocaust and other mass killings. The playing up of social Darwinism and eugencis - removal of the weaker members of society by death, leaving more healthy, intelligent people, or leaving only Purebloods or those considered worthy enough. 200,000 people were believed to be killed under that program, but roughly 14 million people, all in, by various means, including the Holocaust.

I don't believe he would have made it to Britain, if he had, we would have heard more about it at some point.

As for numbers, it's difficult to say. Depends really on how you look at it, but it could be in the thousands in terms of supporters, but Grindelwald would likely have a small group of something like lieutenants to ensure the nasty work was taken care of, and the Dumbledore battle is something that you can go wild with.

Oh, and Grindelwald had blonde hair, probably blue eyes and was handsome, intelligent and charming. Just the kind of guy Hitler wanted for his world.

As a random aside, it's also interesting that Richard Wagner once lived in the town of Grindelwald in Switzerland and came to believe in the same racialist philosophy of Arthur de Gobineau that Hitler got in to. Hitler was also a big admirer of Wagner's music, and there's belief that Wagner may have influenced Nazi thinking.

As the previouse posters have already mentioned, a lot about Gellert is a mystery and the thread on him at the Character Clinic is also very helpfull. It's where a few people have discussed and disected Gellert as a character.

Also, if you need help with the time period and reference to the war in the Muggle world which coincides with Gellert reign, then I advice you read Dumbledore and the Secrets of the Merepeople. It is set during that time era and combines both wars (the wizard and the Muggle ones) very nicely. It's told from an OCs POV who is unknowingly working together with Dumbledore to bring down Gellert.

If you are looking for some research in the Albus/Gellert, I suggest For The Greater Good as it is centered more around the relationship aspect.

As far the things that Gellert did, a brief glimpse can be seen in the above fics though it isn't a fact, just a theory. I also advice you to read am interview found in the Main Mugglenet site under the interviews section. The one in which Jo revealed Dumbledore's sexuality. Also, (though very little) Gellert has been mentioned on Jo's official site in the Wizard of the Month: Albus Dumbledore section.

As always, the Lexican is a great help as it the Mugglenet Encyclopedia. Hope that helped=Sammy

P.S. Modlies, if I am not supposed to do this, please DELETE this post.